An integrated power amplifier is desirable in wireless devices. For example, the integrated power amplifier can reduce the form factor, costs, test time and components on board. Additionally, the integrated power amplifier enables more sophisticated linearization and calibration techniques to achieve better efficiency and performance.
Many power amplifiers are standalone components. Further, integrated power amplifiers can have a relatively poor efficiency due to high parasitic losses. Additionally, due to a low gain device being available, integrated power amplifiers have more than one gain stage and consequently can require inter-stage matching, and hence a higher silicon area.